Motor carrier unable to prove it trained truck driver
$20 million nuclear settlement
On August 6, 2019, professional truck driver, Lennis Beck was eastbound on I-70 at about 5:30 a.m. in rainy weather. Beck was a company driver for Great Plans Trucking. Despite the rainy conditions, Beck did not slow down and in fact left his cruise control engaged at 70 MPH.
Carrie Schultz was driving her car in the opposite direction. Schultz’s car fishtailed to avoid another car, hit a pickup truck then a retaining wall and ended up stopped in the middle of the highway. Beck’s truck struck the Schultz’s car, killing her 19-year-old son, Robert Schultz.
Despite the undisputed fact that Schultz was an admitted CHRONIC user of marijuana and was probably stoned when she lost control of her car, setting the stage for the tractor-trailer to strike her while she was stopped sideways in the roadway, the jury found against the Great Plains for $20 million because the employer could not prove that it had trained Beck to slow down for rain.
Specifically, the award was $10 million in compensatory damages against Great Plains and Beck, $10 million in “aggravating circumstances damages” against Great Plains, and $25,000 in aggravating circumstances against Beck.
